Daily Recap — May 30

THE REAL KIM SUMMIT

Sorry, Rocket Man. PDT has managed to land a Kim summit anyway, with the only human on Earth flakier than you.

The Donald met with Kim Kardashian West today in the Oval Office to discuss an issue close to Kardashian’s probably-plastic heart: prison/sentencing reform.

The meeting was set up by Trump’s son-in-law and guy-literally-tasked-with-bringing-peace-to-the-Middle-East, Jared Kushner, who as a top White House adviser has made prison reform one of his major priorities. It comes after months of back-channel talks between Kushner and Kardashian, which Ivanka probably didn’t care for.

The spectacle focused on the campaign to pardon Alice Marie Johnson, a nonviolent drug offender who’s currently serving life without parole in prison. Kim K. has taken up Johnson’s cause in recent months, following a viral video by Mic.com describing her case.

Kardashian didn’t bring her publicist, sisters, or even her husband Kanye, who is currently busy driving liberals to suicide on Twitter. She and her attorney met with Kushner in the West Wing before being escorted back to talk directly to the big guy in the Oval Office.

Kardashian’s main goal was to get Johnson pardoned, though we’ve yet to learn to whether her efforts will bear any fruit. That would certainly go against Trump’s general approach to drugs so far. Trump has gone so far as to say that the government should execute drug dealers and traffickers, mostly as a nod to the (truly) zero tolerance program conducted by Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte. More broadly, his administration, under AG Keebler Jeff, has adopted a “tough on crime” view toward drugs.

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SO WHO IS THIS JOHNSON BROAD ANYWAY?

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She’s currently serving a life sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. Since there’s no parole in the federal system, she’s, well, not eligible for it. She was sentenced in 1996, putting her current stint at about 22 years.

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According to the Associated Press at the time, Johnson helped lead a multimillion-dollar cocaine ring from 1991 to 1994. At her sentencing, US District Judge Julia Gibbons said that Johnson was “the quintessential entrepreneur” in the operation, “and clearly the impact of 2,000 to 3,000 kilograms of cocaine in this community is very significant.” She was tried on cocaine conspiracy and money laundering charges.

Johnson says that she got involved in the drug trade at a particularly bad time in her life. Her son had died in a motorcycle crash, and her marriage had ended in divorce. She also had just lost her job, causing financial strain. “I couldn’t find a job fast enough to take care of my family,” she said. “I felt like a failure.”

I’m not rolling in dough either, lady, but you don’t see me dumping kilos of coke into the street. But I digress.

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BIG PICTURE:

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Regardless of one’s opinion on prison reform, the trolling value of this summit is undeniable. PDT posted a picture of himself and Kim K. in the Oval Office on Twitter and the liberal tears have already caused flash floods in 17 states.

Additionally, this is 100% a “progressive” cause. All those #CrazyBernie bots should be standing and applauding right now but are precluded by their Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). The Left have no earthly clue how to deal with what happened today. Their so-called “care” for people with unfair prison sentences is surely being tested, as they’ll have to choose between the jailbirds they love and the White House boogey man they love to hate.

I’ll save you the suspense: they’ll choose to hate Trump.

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KARMA STRIKES AGAIN

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It’s no secret that I see porn lawyer Michael Avenatti as the scum of the Earth. As such, I revel in every chance I get to write about his misfortunes. It’s a powerful anti-depressant.

Today’s court hearing about the documents seized by the FBI from Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, quickly turned into a roast session of Avenatti by the judge, mostly for his 10,000 daily media appearances.

Cohen’s team accused Avenatti of staging a legal “drive-by shooting” against Cohen. And Avenatti implied he has information that the raid unearthed what he described as “disturbing” tapes of a conversation between Cohen and Stormy’s former lawyer. He said they’re “on par with the Watergate tapes.”

To refresh your memories, whore Stormy Daniels is suing both Trump and Cohen to get out of a confidentiality agreement that prevents her from discussing her encounter with Trump in 2006. Cohen has admitted giving Daniels a $130,000 payment in exchange for her silence, though he denies she had a sexual liaison with Trump. Daniels is separately suing Cohen for defamation because he accused her of lying about the alleged affair.

On April 26, Avenatti filed a motion to allow Daniels to intervene in Cohen’s case. The motion, which was of course opposed by Cohen’s team, is under consideration by Judge Kimba Wood in U.S. district court in Manhattan. The proceedings are at the stage of determining which documents seized by the FBI from Cohen’s office and residences will be made available to prosecutors. The FBI raid was supposedly a part of a criminal investigation into Cohen’s business dealings and payments he made to Daniels and at least one other woman, who also claimed to have had a relationship with Trump. It was actually just an information dive to find anything and everything to hold over Trump’s head, #ButTheseAreMinorDetails.

Wood has appointed a special master to work with Cohen’s attorneys and prosecutors to determine which documents taken from that raid fall under attorney/client privilege. In his request to allow Daniels to intervene, Avenatti argued that the raid may have included documents that could be subject to her own attorney-client privilege. And attorneys for both Trump and Cohen have also that argued some of the seized materials may be privileged.

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But all that stuff only took up a small chunk of the hearing. The real show was about Avenatti himself, including his financial dealings and the nearly 200 television appearances he has made since linking up with the whore to bring down Trump

Wood warned him that if he does formally enter the case, “you would have to stop doing some of the things you’ve been doing.” Specifically, she said that Avenatti, who has routinely criticized Trump and Cohen on Twitter and television, would have to refrain from issuing “opinions on Mr. Cohen’s guilt.” Wood also said Avenatti could not disclose the contents of nonpublic documents. She suggested that she either wanted Avenatti to behave as a participating attorney in the case while Daniels’s application to intervene is held in abeyance or to remove himself.

“I don’t want you to exist in some kind of limbo where you are able to denigrate Mr. Cohen and potentially contaminate the jury pool,” said Wood.

The judge also warned Avenatti that he would not be able to continue his “publicity tour” if he formally participated in the case.

“I say ‘publicity tour’ not in a derogatory sense. You’re entitled to publicity, I can’t stop you. Unless you’re participating in a matter before me,” said Wood.

It’s pretty simple. If he wants to stay with Stormy, he’s got to cut out the crap on TV and social media.

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ABOUT THOSE TAPES:

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Avenatti said he was willing to have Daniels’s motion to intervene held in abeyance. But he also brought up the issue of “disturbing” tapes he said were made by Cohen to make the case that Daniels’s application would need to be dealt with “sooner or later.”

According to Avenatti, he became aware of the recordings when a “member of the press” called him last week to ask about a taped conversation between Cohen and Daniels’s former attorney, Keith Davidson. Avenatti said the unnamed reporter told him this conversation included references to Daniels. He expressed concerns that the tape was made in the first place and that the press was made aware of it, suggesting this could have been a violation of Daniels’s attorney-client privilege.

HOW FREAKING RICH IS THAT.

Avenatti went on to argue there were only “two sources” that could have leaked a tape of Cohen and Davidson to the press. He said the first potential source would have been the FBI or U.S. attorneys, but that he highly doubted law enforcement would have given a recording to reporters. Therefore, Avenatti says, the leak “had to” have come from “Cohen or someone close” to him. Avenatti suggested Cohen would have leaked the tape to “plant a false narrative” about Daniels.

Translation: Looks like the other guys have some ammo against his client and Avenatti is worried about its release.

Not so fun when bullets begin flying in the other direction, huh bud?

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I really, really hate that guy.

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GOWDY IN FANTASY LAND

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The garden gnome dipped in Jheri curl known as Trey Gowdy has really been pissing off Trumpers lately. Let’s discuss why and what it all means.

Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was briefed last week by the Justice Department and FBI following reports that investigators inserted a spy into the Trump campaign in their probe of OMG RUSSIAN election meddling.

“I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,” Gowdy told Fox News yesterday.

Today, Gowdy doubled down today by saying he had “never heard the term ‘spy’ used” and did not see evidence of it.

“Informants are used all day, every day by law enforcement,” he added.

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Asked about Gowdy’s comments, Sarah Sanders said the president “still has concerns about whether or not the FBI acted inappropriately having people in his campaign.”

Sanders declined to say who in the campaign the president might suspect of providing information to the FBI. She said Trump also has concerns in general about the conduct of the FBI, citing the firing of Deep State McCabe.

“There are a number of things that have been reported on and that show, I think not just for the president, but for a number of Americans a large cause for concern, and we’d like to see this fully looked into,” Sanders said.

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SO WHAT’S THE REAL DEAL?

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Enough of the canned talking points. Let’s get an aerial view of all this nonsense.

Gowdy’s comments reflect exactly what I said would be the narrative going forward, which is painfully semantic. Note Gowdy’s remark about “never hearing the term ‘spy’ used” during his briefing.

That’s because the FBI isn’t going to call him a spy in a briefing to Congress, jackass.

As was discussed here last week, the spy — and yes, that is exactly what he was — is being spun as just a regular ol’ informant, nothing to see here, move along. That’s literally the best case they have to make; the only case when one thinks about it.

Problem is, this is a spy inserted into the campaign of a presidential hopeful; one that happened to be a mortal enemy of the president at that time. This is not “everyday law enforcement” and to suggest otherwise insults our intelligence. This was an extraordinary event which requires an extraordinary explanation. And guess what, the DOJ is fighting tooth and nail to keep secret the justification for that investigation in the first place, so that extraordinary explanation isn’t exactly forthcoming.

And when Gowdy refers to “the information that they got,” where did that information come from, genius? Given the fact that the FBI USED A FRIGGIN SMUT RAG TO GET A FISA WARRANT, DON’T YOU THINK IT’S WORTH EXPLORING WHETHER THE INFORMATION THEY RECEIVED WAS THE RESULT OF A POLITICAL HIT JOB?

Gowdy’s description of the situation, that some folks handed some info to the FBI and viola! the bureau had justification to spy on a friggin political campaign does a serious disservice to the surrounding facts of this case. This is not an everyday matter, and Mr. Gowdy’s flippant attitude reveals extreme naivete at best and deep-state malice at worst.

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Finally, let’s focus on Gowdy’s last contention, that the probe “had nothing to do with Donald Trump.”

Ok Mr. Gowdy, let’s put our thinking caps on for a moment. I’m going to speak directly to you in the virtually non-existent chance that you ever read this blog.

You, yourself, acknowledge that the FBI had nothing directly on Trump (although you’re apparently too stupid to figure out that they were trying to get it). Yet, his campaign aides were electronically surveilled and a HUMINT (human intelligence) operation was launched within his campaign. And not for a few days, for at least 5 months leading up to Election Day and beyond. God only knows how long they were monitored. It wouldn’t shock me to learn that people in the Trump inner circle are being monitored as I type this.

Yet, they apparently didn’t get a damn thing. And you still sing the praises of the King Bob Mueller probe every chance you get. So you mean to tell me, they insert spies into the campaign, intercept phone calls and other communications of campaign members for months on end, get nothing from it and you still believe Mueller still deserves virtually unlimited power to screw with Trump anyway he pleases? Is that the “blind lady of justice” you’re always yammering on about on the Capitol steps?

How about when King Bob referred to the Southern District of New York to break into the office of the president’s personal attorney and steal all his private communications, all for a case that they literally wouldn’t prosecute for anyone else on Earth? Is that the blind justice lady, too? What super duper secret classified info did they get to justify that legal monstrosity? But they’re the FBI, right. They couldn’t possible have ill intentions. Eagle Scouts, all of them.

I’ll make it clear for you: WHAT MORE DOES BOB MUELLER HAVE TO DO BEFORE YOU START TO NOTICE THAT THIS ISN’T LIKE OTHER INVESTIGATIONS. THIS ONE IS A WITCH HUNT.

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BIG PICTURE:

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Gowdy is retiring soon and wants to ensure he maintains his swamp status. He’ll be a K Street whore soon and this is no time to rock the boat.

At least he picked apart Hillary, though. He wasn’t always useless.

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HOW AWESOME WOULD THIS BE

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If this actually happens, Trump could win 114 states in 2020. Yes, states will break down and divide themselves up into smaller states just so Trump can win more of them. Though I admit, the 114 figure is just a guestimate.

While signing the right-to-try bill we discussed not long ago, PDT said some of the nation’s biggest drug makers will voluntarily announce “massive” drug price cuts in mid-June, though he wouldn’t elaborate.

“We’re going to have some of the big drug companies in in two weeks and they’re going to announce — because of what we did — they’re going to announce voluntary massive drops in prices, so that’s great,” Trump said, adding: “For the first time ever in this country, there will be a major drop in the cost of prescription drugs.”

Whheeeeeeewww lads, that’s quite the pronouncement.

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No other details were immediately available from the administration and, at least thus far, no one from big pharma (dun-dun-DUNNNNNNNNN) has stepped up to confirm or deny PDT’s claim, though some outlets like POLITICO are reporting that he caught them completely off guard.

Sarah Sanders at her daily briefing said, “We do expect some specific policy pieces to come out on that soon,” but wouldn’t elaborate.

This month, PDT issued a 44-page plan to lower drug prices that included steps like requiring drugmakers to list prices in their advertisements, as well as government-funded pilot programs exploring new ways to hold the cost of medicines. He has vowed for more than a year and a half to crack down on drug prices, pledging to take a hard line with pharmaceutical companies.

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WHAT THE HECK I THINK:

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I think PDT is using this press soundbite in order to apply pressure on the pharma companies before they have their big pow-wow, negotiation or whatever you’d like to call it.

Remember, pharma has received tax breaks just like every other American industry. PDT is basically putting their greed on the spot. That may not be a comforting thought to conservative ideologues, but it’s very popular with the people, and just might be effective.

I believe that 44-page plan is more or less designed to show big pharma what they’re going to have to deal with if they don’t action voluntarily. Trump’s announcement today could be a prediction, of sorts, that they’ll take matters into their own hands before he has to get involved. He’s cocky like that.

And you know what, I think it just might work. Right now there are a few pharma executives lying in bed dreading the onslaught they’ll face from the presidential Twitter feed, something they can hardly afford with the public relations dumpster fire their industry lives in already.

It’s going to be very interesting to see where this goes, to say the least.

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There it is, homeskillet. You know the drill: questions, comments, concerns, memes, insults, compliments, stickers, jokes, emojis and, if we have time, complaints.

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3 thoughts on “Daily Recap — May 30”

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